An aging assassin (Helen Mirren)( who is dieing from illness) and her adopted son/protégé (Cuba Gooding Jr.) are hired by a ruthless criminal ringleader (Stephen Dorff) to kill his wife (Vanessa Ferlito). The two killers find their target and discover her to be in the late stages of pregnancy. The woman goes into a stress-induced labor on the spot and the elder assassin, having revisited concepts of morality and mortality because of her own impending death, decides to spare the lives of her target and the freshly born child. Together they find new life as a makeshift family unit despite the past that will invariably come back to haunt them.

This movie caught me pretty damn well of guard. The way the story unfolds is not nearly as corny as the above paragraph would have you believe, though it still suffers from the stated generic foundations of assassins+baby+new beginnings. What comes after the pretty tame opening is a random collection of unexpected content that will leave you dumbstruck more than once.

The Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. assassin characters have a mother/child bond that’s goofy enough to raise a few eyebrows even before they start bumping uglies. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, 3rd Rock from the Sun) continues to surprise me with his serious roles, this time by taking a lesser part as a doctor (partially under the employ of Stephen Dorff’s crime boss character) who is in a relationship with his nurse, played by Mo’Nique. Then there are the almost continuous shots of naked man ass, Cuba Gooding Jr. briefly in drag, and Stephen’s Dorff makes a latex-capped cameo appearance. Top it off with people being randomly murdered and you’ve basically got an idea of the film.

If you ever happen to wander the isles of your local video store looking for an uncomplicated action/drama that just isn’t normal, Shadowboxer should be at the top of your list. This just isn’t a movie you would want to buy before you see it.